Ryle Nugent was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and is an Irish sports broadcaster, reporter and former Head of

RTÉ Sport RTÉ Sport is a department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ. The department provides sporting coverage through a number of platforms including RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Player, RTÉ Player Sport and RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Mobile. RTÉ h ...

. Prior to his appointment, he was RTÉ's

commissioning editor In book publishing, a commissioning editor is essentially a buyer. It is the job of the commissioning editor to advise the publishing house on which books to publish. Usually the actual decision of whether to contract a book is taken by a senior m ...

for sportBack-up link
/ref>
/ref> primarily specialising in

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. He is the resident rugby union commentator for RTÉ's television coverage of international and club competitions, such as the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

and

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

. Nugent sometimes serves as the presenter of highlights of previously broadcast rugby union events. He has provided RTÉ commentary from the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and presented sports programmes such as ''

The Grip ''The Grip'' is a live album, live debut album by jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe, recorded at the Brook, New York City in 1977 and released on the India Navigation label.Against the Head ''Against the Head'' is a weekly rugby magazine programme, broadcast on RTÉ Two and presented by Joanne Cantwell with regular panellists Shane Byrne, and Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley with various other guests throughout th ...

''. Other television appearances have included '' The Cafe'' and ''

Dustin's Daily News ''Dustin's Daily News'' (DDN) is a television Talk show, chat/comedy show, broadcast on RTÉ Two. A predecessor of ''The Once a Week Show'', it served as a new home for Dustin the Turkey, who had until then been part of ''The Den (Ireland), The D ...

''.

Education

Nugent was educated at

Blackrock College Blackrock College () is a voluntary day and boarding Catholic secondary school for boys aged 13–18, in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by French missionary Jules Leman in 1860 as a school and later became al ...

in Dublin. He studied broadcasting and journalism at Ballyfermot Senior College, qualifying in 1990.

Career

Before joining

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, Nugent was an employee of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) for many years, providing rugby union commentary from 1999 and later became the broadcaster's head of television sport. He transferred to RTÉ from his news desk position at Dublin radio station

98FM 98FM is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland, operated by Bauer Media Audio Ireland, under a sound broadcasting contract from Coimisiún na Meán. The station broadcasts on the 98.1 MHz FM frequency. 98FM's broadcast antenna is locat ...

in 1995 to work as a sports presenter on the young people's television programme ''

The Grip ''The Grip'' is a live album, live debut album by jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe, recorded at the Brook, New York City in 1977 and released on the India Navigation label. Nugent went on to become the presenter of rugby union highlights for

during the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup () was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's History of rugby union#The professional era, professional era. Four a ...

, when he heard that RTÉ were searching for younger talent to replace established names such as Jim Sherwin and George Hamilton. His live television commentary debut was the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

versus

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

match at the World Cup. He later reflected upon having drunk so much coffee before the game that he vomited. In 2000, he was reported as having described

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

's rugby union player and future captain,

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside Centre (rugby union), centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for Ireland national rugby union te ...

, in the early part of his career at the time, as being "a hard tackler" with "great hands".Back-up link
/ref> Nugent also covers other sports such as

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and golf.Back-up link
/ref> He was dispatched by RTÉ as one of thirty-eight members of its staff to cover the

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

that year, and was described in his country's national media as "running all over Sydney".Back-up link
/ref>
/ref> In October 2002, Nugent was announced as the presenter of a new production by RTÉ Sport, titled ''

Against the Head ''Against the Head'' is a weekly rugby magazine programme, broadcast on RTÉ Two and presented by Joanne Cantwell with regular panellists Shane Byrne, and Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley with various other guests throughout th ...

'', to begin airing in January 2003.Back-up link
/ref> The rugby union magazine style programme returned to Irish television screens in January 2004.
/ref> That year also saw Nugent return to RTÉ's Olympic coverage, this time in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece.Back-up link
/ref>
/ref>
/ref> Other high-profile moments of rugby union commentary came during the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...

in Australia and the

2006 Heineken Cup Final The 2006 Heineken Cup Final was a rugby union match played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on 20 May 2006, to determine the winners of the 2005–06 Heineken Cup, European rugby's premier club competition. The match was contested by ...

in which

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

beat

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Iparralde, Basque city of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine ...

. He appeared on the children's entertainment show ''

'' on 12 February 2007. Nugent performed another return to Olympic broadcasting in 2008 when he provided commentary for RTÉ from Beijing, China. He provided commentary for all games in the

2009 Six Nations Championship The 2009 Six Nations Championship, known as the RBS 6 Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 10th Six Nations Championship, and the 115th international championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the six major European national ...

, in which Ireland won the

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

and Triple Crown for the first time since 1948, and appeared on ''The Cafe'' on 20 March just prior to this achievement. Before this, he described his commentary on the 2007 Ireland versus

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Six Nations match at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

in Dublin as the highlight of his career. He was a guest on '' The Cafe'' on 12 March 2010. On 8 October 2011, Nugent did the commentary for Ireland's Rugby World Cup Quarter Final match against Wales, replacing Hugh Cahill as lead commentator. When the live televised

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

versus

match in the

2012 Six Nations Championship The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was ...

was cancelled minutes prior to kick-off, prompting boos to ring out among disgruntled spectators inside a packed

Stade de France Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the List of football stadiums in France, largest stadium i ...

, Nugent informed viewers from his Irish commentary box that "It is a dark day in the history of the Six Nations". Nugent left RTÉ in 2018. Nugent has worked for Virgin Media Television, covering rugby matches prior to and during the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

Style

Nugent dresses in numerous layers to deliver his commentary, with ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' once encountering him "wrapped in the sort of attire more accustomed to Johnny Fortycoats or an

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

explorer, and with his

sheepskin Sheepskin is the Hide (skin), hide of a Domestic sheep, sheep, sometimes also called lambskin. Unlike common leather, sheepskin is Tanning (leather), tanned with the Wool, fleece intact, as in a Fur, pelt.Delbridge, Arthur, "The Macquarie Diction ...

gloves holding onto his microphone for dear life". His delivery is one of "screeching anticipation" and, even when events are relatively calm, he has been known to "send dogs scurrying for cover".Back-up link
/ref> Nugent prepares for this delivery by arriving at the match ground two hours before kick-off to perform a sound check. He typically engages in conversation with the team doctor or other members of the backroom staff to ensure there is nothing new he has not been familiarised with regarding the players.

References

External links

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

Appearance
on ''The Cafe''—20 March 2009

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent, Ryle Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Dublin's 98FM presenters Irish radio journalists RTÉ television presenters Irish rugby union commentators Rugby union people in Ireland People educated at Blackrock College Broadcasters from County Dublin